Google Says Ranking Recovery Takes Months After SEO Issues Are Fixed

Sep 03, 2026 05:37 PM - 1 hour ago 1

Someone connected Reddit asked for thief troubleshooting 2 abstracted ranking issues that were happening simultaneously. Google’s John Mueller responded pinch encouragement connected really to return a broader position of SEO problems successful bid to amended drawback what is going on.

Two Intersecting Problems

The personification asking the mobility had 2 problems:

1: Google Business Profile
Their Google Business Profile was suspended by Google and their attempts to get it unbanned failed. They besides tried starting a caller business floor plan but that besides ended successful failure.

2. Disavowing Links Ends In Disaster
The Redditor reviewed their backlinks and discovered complete 800 “toxic” links truthful they revenge a nexus disavow. In general, a nexus disavow is designed to beryllium utilized to disavow links that you are responsible for and cognize are spammy. But not everyone is alert of the rules, peculiarly this person, and what happened adjacent is that their integrated rankings collapsed wrong 2 weeks of disavowing their links.

The Redditor asked:

“What would you urge doing astatine this constituent to retrieve my rankings arsenic quickly and safely arsenic possible? Is location thing I tin do to reverse aliases mitigate the effects of the disavow, particularly if I accidentally disavowed immoderate links that were really helping me?

I would really admit an master sentiment connected whether the ranking driblet could realistically beryllium related to the disavow, aliases whether I should beryllium looking for different cause. I americium besides willing successful immoderate morganatic strategies that could thief maine regain the first-page position faster, arsenic the business is having a nonstop effect connected my business.”

So, basically, they had multi-part questions and a GBP issue:

  • Did the disavow origin the integrated ranking loss, aliases is thing other responsible? And what is the champion attack to return to recover?
  • The Business Profile suspension was the first discourse of the station but it was the nexus disavow that was what they suspected to beryllium the origin of their driblet successful integrated rankings.

Google Suggests How To Move Forward

Google’s John Mueller responded to the post, which apparently attracted antagonistic responses toward the usage of the Link Disavow tool.

Mueller’s answer:

“There’s a batch of dislike connected the disavow instrumentality present – but it has its spot & time, it does person effects.

That said, disavowing a fistful of links is not going to make your tract driblet retired of search, truthful a) I’d hole the disavow record to beryllium what you really need/want it to beryllium (which mightiness beryllium empty, aliases mightiness not beryllium empty), and b) I’d look for different imaginable reasons.”

Fixing Ranking Problems Can Take Months

Mueller continued his answer, explaining that fixing algorithmic related issues tin return months.

For example, location was a broader spam update which mightiness person happened astatine astir that clip (I don’t callback the existent date, and you don’t mention a day successful your post). If it’s the lawsuit the astatine it aligns pinch the spam update, to group expectations, fixing issues astir bigger algorithmic changes tin return rather immoderate clip – sometimes galore months – until you spot the effects.

Another origin I’d look into much profoundly is wide & large method issues (not “oops, incorrect canonical” but much for illustration “oops, blocked the full site”), conscionable to norm retired that it’s thing easier to fix.”

Mueller’s reply was to first group expectations that fixing an algorithm related hunt rumor is not a speedy fix. But fixing mistakes (like accidentally no-indexing a site) are speedy fixes.

About Link Disavows

I’ve had conversations pinch group who person shared anecdotes astir really their nexus disavows for a customer was followed by ranking improvements wrong weeks. And galore others, including the Redditor, person knowledgeable akin thing.

But what the Redditor whitethorn not beryllium alert of is that nexus disavows return months to person an effect, not weeks.

John Mueller has answered how agelong it takes for nexus disavows to activity successful Google:

“With regards to this peculiar case, wherever you’re saying you submitted a disavow record and past the ranking dropped aliases the visibility dropped, particularly a fewer days later, I would presume that that is not related.

So successful peculiar pinch the disavow file, what happens is we return that record into relationship erstwhile we reprocess the links benignant of pointing to your website. And this is simply a process that happens incrementally complete a play of clip wherever I would expect it would person an effect complete the people of… I don’t know… possibly three, four, five, six months …kind of measurement by measurement going successful that direction.

So if you’re saying that you saw an effect wrong a mates of days and it was a really beardown effect past I would presume that this effect is wholly unrelated to the disavow file. …it sounds for illustration you still haven’t figured retired what mightiness beryllium causing this.”

So each of those times that a nexus disavow seemed to amended rankings aft a fewer weeks: conscionable a coincidence. Link disavows return months to return an effect, if location is immoderate effect.

The different rumor astir nexus disavows is that they’re only expected to beryllium utilized connected links that you yourself are responsible for.

Guest Posts = Spam

Circling backmost to the Redditor pinch the driblet successful integrated rankings, thing useful they shared is that they were responsible for purchasing impermanent posts, done Fiverr.

They wrote:

“Unfortunately, this clip I whitethorn person made a mistake. I included immoderate domains successful the disavow record that contained aged impermanent posts I had purchased done Fiverr.

The links were from a different niche and were somewhat spammy, truthful I considered them toxic astatine the time, but I americium now concerned that immoderate of those links whitethorn person still been providing SEO value.”

I americium not going to presume that the Redditor made conscionable 1 mistake. If they’re going retired location buying links from Fiverr, it whitethorn not beryllium unreasonable to presume location are different SEO issues going connected pinch their site. It really does consciousness apt that their tract was a casualty of Google’s caller spam update.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/B Desain28

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